Tailored intergenerational historic snapshots

ABSTRACT

A tailored intergenerational historic snapshot message informs a younger person about the world an older person lived in when they were young. The older person&#39;s age and the younger person&#39;s age are used to identify a historic time period in which the older person was the same age as the younger person. A circumstance which occurred in the historic time period is selected from a database or web search result. The message is tailored to the ages of the people involved. The message may also be tailored to recite circumstances specific to a topic area or a geographic location.

RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority to, and incorporates byreference, U.S. provisional patent application No. 61/012,430 filed Dec.8, 2007.

BACKGROUND

Some online services offer reminders of birthdays, anniversaries, andother life events. Some allow a user to create an electronic birthdaycard, sympathy card, anniversary card, or other greeting card. Theelectronic card may be based on a template, which is customized withtext and photos provided by the user. The customized electronic card isthen emailed to a recipient.

Genealogical databases available online may allow identification ofancestors going back multiple generations. Genealogy may begin with workidentifying members of a family tree, but it often extends beyond merelineage and location data into an investigation of the life events,living conditions, and personal history of one's ancestors. A familyhistory is a narrative of the lives of people in a particular family.Personal correspondence, newspapers and other contemporaneouspublications, legal records, religious records, and oral historynarratives may each provide insight into someone's life years ago.

This background was drafted with the present invention in mind. One ofskill would not necessarily have combined any or all of the conceptsthat are presented together here.

SUMMARY

A tailored intergenerational historic snapshot message helps inform ayounger person about the world an older person lived in when they wereyoung. For instance, a message may list several circumstances in theolder person's life from a time when the older person was the same ageas the younger person is now, such as technology advances or politicalevents from that time period. In some embodiments, the older person'sage and the younger person's age are first used to identify a historictime period in which the older person was the same age as the youngerperson. A circumstance which occurred in the historic time period isthen selected from a database, web search results, or another datasource. An intergenerational historic snapshot message is thengenerated, tailored to the ages of the older and younger persons. Themessage may also be tailored to describe circumstances specific to atopic area such as music or sports, or circumstances specific to aparticular geographic location such as the older person's home town orthe younger person's current state of residence. The tailored messageinforms the younger person about one or more circumstances that occurredwhen the older person was approximately the younger person's age,thereby helping the younger person better understand the world the olderperson lived in at the time.

The examples given are merely illustrative. This Summary is not intendedto identify key features or essential features of the claimed subjectmatter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimedsubject matter. Rather, this Summary is provided to introduce—in asimplified form—some concepts that are further described below in theDetailed Description. The innovation is defined with claims, and to theextent this Summary conflicts with the claims, the claims shouldprevail.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more particular description will be given with reference to theattached drawings. These drawings only illustrate selected aspects andthus do not fully determine coverage or scope.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system having a memoryconfigured with a tailored intergenerational historic snapshot messagegenerator and other items in an operating environment, and alsoillustrating configured storage medium embodiments;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration in which tailoredintergenerational historic snapshot messages are generated on a systemwhich communicates with users through a remote device;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating steps of some method and configuredstorage medium embodiments, from a system perspective; and

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating steps of some method and configuredstorage medium embodiments, from a user perspective.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

Embodiments described here provide tools and techniques forstrengthening family bonds and helping people better understand theworld in which their older family members grew up. In particular, someembodiments automatically create messages which can help a youngerperson connect with an older person by identifying historic events thatoccurred in the older person's world when the older person was the sameage as the younger person is now. The selection of events identified canbe tailored expressly by subject matter and/or filtered according to theage or location(s) of the people involved.

Reference will now be made to exemplary embodiments such as thoseillustrated in the drawings, and specific language will be used hereinto describe the same. But alterations and further modifications of thefeatures illustrated herein, and additional applications of theprinciples illustrated herein, which would occur to one skilled in therelevant art(s) and having possession of this disclosure, should beconsidered within the scope of the claims.

The meaning of terms is clarified in this disclosure, so the claimsshould be read with careful attention to these clarifications. Specificexamples are given, but those of skill in the relevant art(s) willunderstand that other examples may also fall within the meaning of theterms used, and within the scope of one or more claims. Terms do notnecessarily have the same meaning here that they have in general usage,in the usage of a particular industry, or in a particular dictionary orset of dictionaries. Reference numerals may be used with variousphrasings, to help show the breadth of a term. Omission of a referencenumeral from a given piece of text does not necessarily mean that thecontent of a Figure is not being discussed by the text. The inventorasserts and exercises the right to his own lexicography. Terms may bedefined, either explicitly or implicitly, here in the DetailedDescription and/or elsewhere in the application file.

As used herein, a “computer system” may include, for example, one ormore servers, motherboards, processing nodes, personal computers(portable or not), personal digital assistants, cell or mobile phones,and/or machine(s) providing one or more processors controlled at leastin part by instructions. The instructions may be in the form of softwarein memory and/or specialized circuitry. In particular, although it mayoccur that many embodiments run at least partially on workstation orlaptop computers, other embodiments may run on other computing machines,and any one or more such machines may be part of a given embodiment. Acomputer system is sometimes simply referred to as a “system”.

A “multithreaded” computer system is a computer system which supportsmultiple execution threads. The term “thread” should be understood toinclude any code capable of or subject to synchronization, and may alsobe known by another name, such as “task,” “process,” or “coroutine,” forexample. The threads may run in parallel, in sequence, or in acombination of parallel execution (e.g., multiprocessing) and sequentialexecution (e.g., time-sliced). Multithreading may be implemented, forexample, by running different threads on different cores in amultiprocessing environment, by time-slicing different threads on asingle processor core, by running on more than one machine, and/or bysome combination of time-sliced and multi-processor threading.

A “logical processor” or “processor” is a single independent hardwarethread. For example a hyperthreaded quad core chip running two threadsper core has eight logical processors. Processors may be generalpurpose, or they may be tailored for specific uses such as graphicsprocessing, signal processing, floating-point arithmetic processing,encryption, I/O processing, and so on.

A “multiprocessor” computer system is a computer system which hasmultiple logical processors.

“Kernels” include operating systems, hypervisors, virtual machines, andsimilar hardware interface software.

“Code” means processor instructions, data (which includes datastructures), or both instructions and data.

Whenever reference is made to data or instructions, it is understoodthat these items configure a computer-readable memory, as opposed tosimply existing on paper, in a person's mind, or as a transitory signalon a wire, for example.

A list may be “displayed” by a system visually, audibly, and/ortactilely.

A “circumstance” may be an event, or it may be a condition or state. Forexample, the first medical use of penicillin is an event, the price of agallon of gasoline is an economic condition or state, and each of theseis a circumstance.

“Personal history information” includes information pertaining to thecircumstances of a particular person's life. Aspects of personal historyinformation may be publicly known or previously recorded in publicallyaccessible data sources, but personal history information also includesanecdotal, autobiographical narrative, and/or previously privateinformation about the life of the person in question.

A “familial relationship” is a description of the relationship(s)between two or more people in a family, such as grandparent, cousin,aunt, uncle, father, mother, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, or the like.

A “family group” is particular example of a family. All people in afamily group are related by blood, legal adoption, or marriage within aspan of at most four generations.

Unless otherwise indicated, “age” means a person's age in years. An“indication” of a person's age means information from which the person'sage can be calculated, such as the person's birth year, their full birthdate, their age relative to another person whose age is known or can becalculated, or a statement of the person's age at a specified time.

Unless otherwise indicated, two ages are the “same” if they are withintwelve months of each other. Similarly, unless otherwise indicated twoages are “approximately” the same if they are within three years of eachother.

An event occurred “within” a period if any portion of the event occurredduring the period.

A message “discloses” certain information if it makes that informationclear to the message recipient, regardless of whether the recipientalready knew some or all of the information being disclosed. The use ofparticular phrasing is not required in the message, so long as theinformation said to be disclosed is conveyed to the recipient. Themessage may also contain other information beyond the information saidto be disclosed.

A message may be “electronically transmitted” via email, fax, blogposting, text message, synthesized voice communication, voicemail, orthe like.

Throughout this document, use of the optional plural “(s)” means thatone or more of the indicated feature is present. For example,“circumstance(s)” means “one or more circumstances” or equivalently “atleast one circumstance”.

Operating Environments

With reference to FIG. 1, an operating environment 100 for an embodimentmay include a computer system 102. The computer system 102 may be amultiprocessor computer system, or not. An operating environment mayinclude one or more computer systems, which may be clustered,client-server networked, and/or peer-to-peer networked. Some operatingenvironments include a stand-alone (non-networked) computer system.

Human users 104 may interact with the computer system 102 by usingdisplays, keyboards, and other peripherals 106. Automated agents mayalso be users 104. Storage devices and/or networking devices may beconsidered peripheral equipment in some embodiments. Other computersystems (not shown) may interact with the computer system 102 or withanother system embodiment using one or more connections to a network 108via network interface equipment, for example.

The computer system 102 includes at least one logical processor 110. Thecomputer system 102, like other suitable systems, also includes one ormore memories 112. The memories 112 may be volatile, non-volatile, fixedin place, removable, magnetic, optical, and/or of other types. Inparticular, a configured medium 114 such as a CD, DVD, memory stick, orother removable non-volatile memory medium may become functionally partof the computer system when inserted or otherwise installed, making itscontent accessible for use by processor 110. The removable configuredmedium 114 is an example of a memory 112. Other examples of memory 112include built-in RAM, ROM, hard disks, and other storage devices whichare not readily removable by users 104.

The medium 114 is configured with instructions 116 that are executableby a processor 110; “executable” is used in a broad sense herein toinclude machine code, interpretable code, and code that runs on avirtual machine, for example. The medium 114 is also configured withdata 118 which is created, modified, referenced, and/or otherwise usedby execution of the instructions 116. The instructions 116 and the data118 configure the memory 112/medium 114 in which they reside; when thatmemory is a functional part of a given computer system, the instructions116 and data 118 also configure that computer system. Memories 112 maybe of different physical types. Tailored intergenerational historicsnapshot message generators 124 and other items shown in the Figures mayreside partially or entirely within one or more memories 112, therebyconfiguring those memories.

Persons 120, 122 may submit information to the system 102 for use by amessage generator 124 and/or may receive messages generated by themessage generator 124.

The message generator 124 includes an interface 126 through which themessage generator 124 receives information and commands, and providesgenerated messages. The message generator 124 may be implemented insoftware 128 and/or hardware 130. The illustrated message generator 124accesses peripherals 106, networks 108, and other resources with theassistance of a kernel 132 such as an operating system. The illustratedmessage generator 124 uses interfaces 134 to access databases and websearch engines to locate circumstance information. Other applicationprograms and other software 136 and other hardware 138 (buses, powersupplies, network interface cards, etc.) than that already enumeratedmay also be present.

In some embodiments, peripherals 106 such as human user I/O devices(screen, keyboard, mouse, microphone, speaker, motion sensor, etc.) willbe present in operable communication with one or more processors 110 andmemory 112. In some embodiments, networking interface equipment providesaccess to networks 108, using components such as a packet-switchednetwork interface card, a wireless transceiver, or a telephone networkinterface, for example, will be present in the computer system. However,an embodiment may also communicate through direct memory access,removable nonvolatile media, or other information storage-retrievaland/or transmission approaches, or an embodiment in a computer systemmay operate without communicating with other computer systems.

Systems

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, some embodiments provide a system 102having a processor 110 in operable communication with a memory 112 thatcontains a message generator 124 and/or messages 202 generated by amessage generator 124. In some embodiments, data 204 such as selectedcircumstances, personal history information, topical preferences,geographic location information, age indications, usernames, passwords,and/or email addresses are also present in memory 112. Some embodimentsare configured to select circumstances by querying one or more databases206, using topics, geographic locations, and/or time periods as keys orindexes.

Some embodiments are configured to select circumstances by contactingone or more web search engines 208, using topics, geographic locations,and/or time periods as search terms. Some embodiments use other datasources 210, such as recorded anecdotes, photographs supplied by a user,and/or text supplied by a user, when generating messages 202.

The configuration illustrated in FIG. 2 includes a remote device 212,such as a computer network client or a mobile phone or other localsystem 102 which is in communication (intermittent or continuous) with aremote system 102 such as a server. In this configuration, the remotedevice(s) 212 act mainly to provide displays 214 and other interfaces216 engaged by a user 104 and/or other persons 120, 122, while theremote system 102 selects circumstances and otherwise generates messages202.

Examples given within this document do not describe all possibleembodiments. Embodiments are not limited to the specificimplementations, arrangements, displays, features, approaches, orscenarios provided herein. A given embodiment may include additional ordifferent features, mechanisms, and/or data structures, for instance,and may otherwise depart from the examples provided herein.

Bearing these caveats in mind, in some embodiments an email message 202is automatically generated by the generator 124 and sent to one or morepersons 120, 122, 104. In one embodiment, the email message has thefollowing general format:

-   To: <Younger>-   From: <Caregiver>-   Cc: <Elder>-   Subject: “When <Elder> was your age . . . ”-   “Dear <Younger>, I thought you might like to know some ways the    world has changed since <Elder> was your age. When <Elder> was    <Younger Age>, in the year <Elder Birthdate+Younger Age>,    <Subject-specific event recitation(s)>. Love, <Caregiver>”

For example, a parent might subscribe to a service which automaticallygenerates and sends to the parent's child, each year on the birthday ofthe child's grandparent, an email reminder message 202 about thegrandparent's birthday which also describes a historic event thatoccurred the year the grandparent was the same age as the childcurrently is. In the FIG. 1 configuration, the parent acts as a user194, the child is a younger person 120, and the grandparent is an olderperson 122. The historic event could be from a topic-specificchronological database 206 of events, with the topic (sports,technology, music, etc.) specified by the parent.

In some embodiments, multiple people can be involved, e.g., two or more<Elder> persons 122 in one message 202, two or more <Younger> persons120 in one message 202, and some people could be Bcc'd as well as Cc'd.In some embodiments, other people familiar to <Younger> also providesnapshot ages, e.g., “When Uncle Bob was your age (11), <X> had justbeen invented, and when Uncle Bob was your brother's age (14), <Y> madethe first successful <Z>.”

In some embodiments, an <age> is defined by input data 204 in the formof a complete birthdate (day, month, and year), a partial birthdate(month and year, season and year, or year, for example), and/or an age(specified, e.g., in years).

In some embodiments, a subject database 206 from which an event ischosen contains event listings pertaining to a relatively broad topic,such as sports, politics, religion, fashion, or the like. In someembodiments, the subject database 206 is relatively narrow, e.g.,containing events in Rock & Roll History, events in the life of one ormore specified celebrities or other famous persons, numismatic eventssuch as coin mintings, and so on. In some embodiments, topical keywordsare included in web search engine 208 queries to provide a similareffect, namely, obtaining circumstance description(s) pertinent toparticular specified topic(s).

In some embodiments, in place of or in addition to an automaticallygenerated email message 202, a message 202 is automatically generated inanother format, e.g., cell phone text message, synthesized voicerecording, online instant message, visual text and graphics, and so on.

In some embodiments, GPS technology, geolocation tools, and/or otherlocation-approximating technology is used and results are incorporatedinto the event database 206 lookup, the web search engine 208 query,and/or the text or images in the generated message 202. Formergeographic location(s) and other personal history of the <Elder> and/orother people may also be used in generating messages 202. For example,messages such as the following might be automatically generated:

-   “When Grandpa was your age, he lived <distance> miles from where you    are right now.”-   “When Uncle Fred was your age, <Metropolis> only had <population at    the time of closest census date to historic date> people in it. A    car cost <historic cost at about that historic date>, but a full day    of hard work only paid <historic wage>”.-   “On your Grandmother's birthday when she turned <same age as child    is now>, the <local city> newspaper front page headline was    ‘<headline.’.”

In some embodiments, the message 202 is automatically generated and sentto a subscriber user first, e.g., a parent, and is subsequently sent tothe <Younger> only if the subscriber approves of the message content. Insome embodiments, a subscriber user such as a <Caregiver> has the optionof editing the automatically generated message before it is sent (by thesystem or by the subscriber, as the case may be) on to anyone else.

In some embodiments, the message is automatically generated and sent ona specified date, such as an <Elder> birthday, a <Younger> birthday, ora <Caregiver> birthday.

Embodiments may be configured in various ways, e.g., as processes and/orhardware on a server computer, on a client or peer, or on a standalonecomputer, software (data instructions) in RAM or permanent storage forperforming a process, with general purpose computer hardware configuredby software, special-purpose computer hardware, data produced by aprocess, and so on. Computers, PDAs, cell phones, and any other device212 having user interface and some network transmission capabilities maybe part of a given embodiment. Touch screens, keyboards, other buttons,levers, microphones, speakers, light pens, sensors, scanners, and otherI/O peripheral 106 devices may be configured to facilitate or performoperations to achieve the methods and systems, and method results, whichare described here. Combinations of these may also form a givenembodiment. Terms such as “computerized” refer to devices having amicroprocessor and memory, not merely to personal computers or servers.“Electronic” refers to digital and/or analog electronic circuitry.“Automatic” means without requiring ongoing real-time human input orguidance to perform the immediately contemplated operation.

Methods

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate some method embodiments, in flowcharts 300 and400, respectively. Methods shown in the Figures may be performed in someembodiments automatically, e.g., by a message generator 124 that hasbeen initialized with data 204 and designed to operate with little or nofurther user input. Methods may also be performed in part automaticallyand in part manually unless otherwise indicated.

In a given embodiment zero or more illustrated steps of a method may berepeated, perhaps with different parameters or data to operate on. Stepsin an embodiment may also be done in a different order than thetop-to-bottom order that is laid out in FIG. 3 and in FIG. 4. Steps maybe performed serially, in a partially overlapping manner, or fully inparallel. The order in which a flowchart is traversed to indicate thesteps performed during a method may vary from one performance of themethod to another performance of the method. The flowchart traversalorder may also vary from one method embodiment to another methodembodiment. Steps may also be omitted, combined, renamed, regrouped, orotherwise depart from the illustrated flows, provided that the methodperformed is operable and conforms to at least one claim. A given methodmay include steps from either or both of these Figures.

FIG. 3 illustrates steps from the perspective of a configured computersystem, device, or other embodiment.

During an obtaining step 302, an embodiment obtains an indication 304 ofa first person's age, such as their birth date (the current date isimplicitly known) or a statement that they are N years old, for somevalue of N, for example. The indication 304 may be obtainedinteractively through a GUI or other user interface, or received througha network transmission, or read from a file, for example.

During a similar receiving step 306, the embodiment receives another ageindication, namely an indication 308 of a second person's age. The sametype of mechanisms and procedures may be used in receiving step 306 asin obtaining step 302. It will also be understood that the order inwhich the age indications are received is not critical—the youngerperson's age may be indicated to the embodiment before the olderperson's age is indicated, or vice versa, or the two may be indicatedtogether.

During an identifying step 310, an embodiment identifies a historic timeperiod 312 in which the older person was approximately the same age asthe younger person's age. As one example, if the persons' ages are 88and 18, time periods are each two years long, and the current year is2008, then by arithmetic calculation step 310 could identify 1936-1938or 1938-1940 as a suitable historic time period (calculate 2008 minus 88plus 18 to get 1938 and then select a period that includes 1938). Asanother example, if the persons' ages are 53 and 13, time periods areeach one year long, and the current year is 2008, then by arithmeticcalculation step 310 could identify 1968 as a suitable historic timeperiod (2008 minus 53 plus 13 equals 1968). Historic time periods neednot all be of the same duration, and may be measured in units other thanyears; period descriptors could be stored in a list or table andselected based on their beginning and ending dates. In some embodiments,a historic time period has a span (e.g., beginning date and ending date,or beginning date and length) and a list describing circumstances 316which occurred during the period. Each circumstance description includesa textual, visual, and/or audible portion for potential inclusion in amessage 202. Each circumstance may include topical markers (sports,politics, technology, etc.), and may have an associated geographicoccurrence location (city, state, region, province, country, etc.). Inaddition to being associated with a historic time period, thecircumstance may also have a displayable specific occurrence date withinthe period's span.

During a selecting step 314, an embodiment selects a circumstance 316from a time period 312. The circumstance has a date 318, which may beeither the time period's span or a more specific occurrence date withinthat span. Selection may be made completely randomly from thecircumstances associated with the time period 312, or selection may bebased at least in part on topical markers and/or geographic locationand/or specific occurrence date, for example.

During a generating step 320, an embodiment generates a message 202 byusing a template (procedural, textual, XML/HTML, etc.) which theembodiment fills in with selected circumstance descriptions, ageindications, recipient and other persons' names, and destinationaddresses, for example.

During a querying step 322, an embodiment queries a database 206 ofcircumstances to obtain one or more circumstance descriptions to insertin a message 202. The query may key off values such as the historic timeperiod, topical preferences (enumerated categories and/or free-formkeyword searches), and geographic locations in which circumstancesoccurred.

During a web search engine contacting step 324, an embodiment contacts aweb search engine 208 with a search request to obtain one or morecircumstance descriptions to insert in a message 202. The search enginemay be a general-purpose engine such as the Google® search engine, or amore specialized search engine such as the USPTO search engine. Thesearch may search the web generally and/or specifically identifiedwebsites, and the search may use keywords tending to produce searchresults for a historic time period, for preferred topics, and forparticular geographic locations.

During a topical preference accepting step 326, an embodiment accepts atleast one topical preference. Topical preferences 330 may be conveyedinteractively to an embodiment, through a user interface, or they may bedefaults read from a configuration file, for example. Topicalpreferences 330 may be given as enumerated categories, or in a free formas keywords, again depending on the particular embodiment.

During a topical preference using step 328, an embodiment uses at leastone topical preference, e.g., while querying 322 a database orcontacting 324 a search engine.

During a geographic location determining step 332, an embodimentdetermines at least one geographic location, such as a message 202recipient's location, or an older person's location at the time theywere approximately the age of a younger person. A geographic location336 may be conveyed interactively in an embodiment, through a userinterface, may be a default read from a configuration file or fromsubmitted personal history information, or may be determined bygeolocation technology using IP addresses and other data, for example. Ageographic location 336 determined through user input or configurationfile content may be given as an enumerated value from a list such as zipcodes or country names, or in a free form as keywords, again dependingon the particular embodiment.

During a geographic location using step 334, an embodiment uses at leastone geographic location, e.g., while querying 322 a database orcontacting 324 a search engine.

During a familial relationship accepting step 338, an embodiment acceptsat least one familial relationship description. Familial relationships342 may be conveyed interactively to an embodiment through a userinterface, for example. Familial relationships 342 may be given asenumerated values, or in a free form as keywords, again depending on theparticular embodiment.

During a familial relationship using step 340, an embodiment uses atleast one familial relationship while filling in a template to form amessage 202.

During a presenting step 344, an embodiment presents a user with a draftmessage 202, which in some embodiments the user may then edit 346 andapprove 348 prior to transmission 350 of the message. The message may betransmitted 350 to recipients such as the older person and the youngerperson whose relationship is a motivation for causing generation of themessage 202.

FIG. 4 illustrates steps from the perspective of a user 104.

During a first age indicating step 402, a user gives a system or device(e.g., handheld device interfacing to a remote system) a first person'sage indication 304.

During a second age indicating step 404, a user provides the system ordevice a second person's age indication 308. The age indications maycome from different users, e.g., a grandchild and a grandparent may eachenter their own age. Also, the older person's age may be entered firstin some cases, while the younger person's age is entered first in othercases. Also, more than two ages may be entered, in at least two ways:multiple ages for a given person entered to provide a sequence of lifesnapshots; multiple persons' ages entered, such as the ages of twograndparents and a grandchild, or of a grandparent and severalgrandchildren. Steps 402 and 404 correspond generally to steps 302 and306, albeit from a different perspective.

During a message getting step 406, a recipient gets a generated message202, through email, synthesized voicemail, short text message, fax,and/or other electronic transmission mechanism(s). Step 406 may be aresult of step 320 and/or step 350.

During a submitting step 408, a person submits a description of theirpersonal history 410 to a system or device, for including in a database206 for possible use in generating messages 202. For instance, an olderperson may submit a chronology listing geographic locations andcorresponding residence dates, and/or a free-form text anecdote(possibly with attached images/sounds) recalling circumstances from aparticular historic period.

During a time difference specifying step 412, a user specifies a maximumtime difference 414 for the system to use. In some embodiments, forexample, two ages are the “same” if they are within twelve months ofeach other, unless otherwise indicated. Similarly, unless otherwiseindicated two ages are “approximately” the same if they are within threeyears of each other. Historic time period spans may also be specified412, effectively setting the maximum time difference between a givencircumstance's occurrence date and the time at which the older personwas the younger person's age.

During a topical preference specifying step 416, one or more topicalpreferences are specified for circumstance descriptions used to tailormessages 202. Step 416 corresponds with step 326 in the ways topicalpreferences can be conveyed to a system.

During a geographic location specifying step 418, one or more geographiclocations are specified for tailoring messages 202. Step 418 correspondswith step 332 in the ways geographic locations can be conveyed to asystem.

During a circumstance choosing step 420, a user chooses for inclusion ina message 202 at least one circumstance description 422 from a list 424of circumstance descriptions that is displayed 426 by a system 102directly or through a remote device 212. The list 424 may be in the formof a drop-down list, links, editable text, selectable photos, or anaudible recitation, for example. The list 424 may include entirecircumstance descriptions, or mere summaries or excerpts of thecircumstance descriptions that are available for insertion in themessage. The list (like other system output) may be displayed 426visually on a screen, tactilely on a Braille output peripheral, oraudibly through a speaker, for example. The user's choice(s), like othersystem input, may be entered in the system or device by the user througha touch screen, mouse, voice command, or other input mechanism. Thecircumstances offered to the user may be selected 314 by the system asdiscussed above, obtained by database query 322 and/or from web searchengine 208 results, for example, may include personal history info 410,and may be selected based in part on topical preference(s) 330 and/orgeographic location(s) 336.

During an instructing step 428, a user instructs a system (possibly viaa remote device) to transmit a message 202 on a particular transmissiondate 430, e.g., a birthday. The transmission date is not necessarily thesame as the date(s) on which the message 202 is generated 320. A systemmay be instructed to transmit a message 202 to different recipients ondifferent dates. The transmission date may be specified directly in acalendar format (e.g., 1/1/2010, or “3 days from today”), or thetransmission date may be specified in a symbolic format (e.g.,“Grandma's Birthday” or “Pat and Mike's Anniversary”).

During respective steps, a user reviews 432, approves 434 fortransmission, and/or edits 436 a message 202, which may be a draftmessage and is thus not necessarily complete or in the final form seenby recipients. Review 432 may include visually and/or audibly receivingthe message 202 from the system, possibly through a remote device.Approval 434 or disapproval may be indicated by a button press, mouseclick, voice command, or other input mechanism. Editing 436 may includechoosing 420 a circumstance, specifying time differences, topicalpreferences, and/or geographic locations, altering a template into whichselected 314 circumstance descriptions are placed, specifying recipientaddresses, and/or adding personalizing text, images, voice recordedgreetings or other sounds, for example.

During an addressing step 438 a user addresses a message 202 to multiplepeople in a family group 440. Recipients may be identified to the systemby their email addresses or phone numbers directly, or recipients may bespecified symbolically by name or relationship, e.g., “Bobby” or “MyGrandkids”.

Some embodiments provide a method of producing a tailoredintergenerational historic snapshot message 202, including the steps of:obtaining 302 an indication 304 of a first person's age (e.g., an olderperson); receiving 306 an indication 308 of a second person's age (e.g.,a younger person); identifying 310 a historic time period 312 in whichthe older person was the same age as the younger person's received age(which is not necessarily the younger person's current age); selecting314 at least one circumstance 316 having an occurrence date 318 in thehistoric time period; and automatically generating 320 a tailoredintergenerational historic snapshot message 202 (possibly in draft formsubject to approval and editing) that discloses via a circumstancedescription that the selected circumstance occurred when the olderperson was approximately the younger person's age.

In some embodiments, the indication 304, 308 of a person's age is givenin years. In some, the indications are obtained in a different orderthan the order illustrated in FIG. 3. In some embodiments, the historictime period 312 satisfies at least one of the following conditions: itis not greater than two months, not greater than six months, not greaterthan one year, not greater than two years, not greater than five years,not greater than ten years. In some, selecting 314 at least onecircumstance includes querying 322 a database and/or contacting 324 aweb search engine. In some, the embodiment selects a circumstance basedat least in part on a user-specified topical preference 330 and/oruser-specified geographic location 336. Some embodiments present 344 themessage to a user for editing arid/or approval. The message may beelectronically transmitted 350 by a given embodiment to at least theyounger person, and in some cases is transmitted to other people aswell. The message may disclose, by text, graphics or audible display, afamilial relationship between the older person and the younger person.

Some embodiments provide a method of requesting a tailoredintergenerational historic snapshot message 202, including the steps of:directly or indirectly giving 402 a system 102 an indication of a firstperson's current age (e.g., the older person); providing 404 the systemwith an indication of a second person's current age (e.g., the youngerperson); and then getting 406 from the system a tailoredintergenerational historic snapshot message (possibly in draft form)which discloses when displayed that a particular selected circumstance316 occurred when the older person was approximately the youngerperson's current age.

Some embodiments include submitting 408 to the system personal historyinformation of the older person for potential inclusion in theautomatically generated message 202 as a circumstance description. Someinclude specifying 412 to the system how close in time the particularcircumstance should be to a date when the older person was the youngerperson's current age. Some include specifying 416 to the system a topic330 to be used in selecting the particular circumstance, such as forexample, a topic in at least one of the following topic categories:sports, technology, music, films, fine arts, literature, famous people,war, crime, exploration, fashion, automobiles, transportation,engineering, politics, economics, books, law, science, business,religion, philosophy, travel, food, adventure, hobbies. Some embodimentsinclude specifying 418 to the system a geographic location 336 to beused in selecting the particular circumstance. In some embodiments, auser chooses 420 one or more particular circumstances from a list 424displayed by the system. Some include instructing 428 the system to sendthe message on a date that is the birthday of at least one of thefollowing: the younger person, the older person, a person instructingthe system. Some include reviewing 432 the message 202 and thenapproving 434 the message, in response to an inquiry from the system;some include editing 436 the message before it is sent to the youngerperson. Some embodiments allow a user to address 438 the message tomultiple people in a family group.

Configured Media

Some embodiments include a configured computer-readable storage medium114, which is an example of a memory 112. Memory 112 may include disks(magnetic, optical, or otherwise), RAM, EEPROMS or other ROMs, and/orother configurable memory. The storage medium which is configured may bein particular a removable storage medium 114 such as a CD, DVD, or flashmemory. A general-purpose memory 112, which may be removable or not, andmay be volatile or not, can be configured into an embodiment using itemssuch as a message generator 124, message generation source data 204,and/or tailored intergenerational historic snapshot messages 202, in theform of data 118 and instructions 116, read from a removable medium 114and/or another source such as a network connection, to form a configuredmedium. The configured memory 112 is capable of causing a computersystem to perform method steps for generating and/or requesting tailoredintergenerational historic snapshot messages as disclosed herein. FIGS.1 through 4 thus help illustrate configured storage media embodimentsand method embodiments, as well as system and method embodiments. Inparticular, any of the method steps illustrated in FIG. 3 and/or FIG. 4,or otherwise taught herein, may be used to help configure a storagemedium to form a configured medium embodiment.

Conclusion

Although particular embodiments are expressly illustrated and describedherein as methods, as configured media, or as systems, it will beappreciated that discussion of one type of embodiment also generallyextends to other embodiment types. For instance, the descriptions ofmethods in connection with FIGS. 3 and 4 also help describe configuredmedia, and help describe the operation of systems and devices like thosediscussed in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2. It does not follow thatlimitations from one embodiment are necessarily read into another. Inparticular, methods are not necessarily limited to the data structuresand arrangements presented while discussing systems or manufactures suchas configured memories.

Not every item shown in the Figures need be present in every embodiment.Although some possibilities are illustrated here in text and drawings byspecific examples, embodiments may depart from these examples. Forinstance, specific features of an example may be omitted, renamed,grouped differently, repeated, instantiated in hardware and/or softwaredifferently, or be a mix of features appearing in two or more of theexamples. Functionality shown at one location may also be provided at adifferent location in some embodiments.

Reference has been made to the figures throughout by reference numerals.Any apparent inconsistencies in the phrasing associated with a givenreference numeral, in the figures or in the text, should be understoodas simply broadening the scope of what is referenced by that numeral.

As used herein, terms such as “a” and “the” are inclusive of one or moreof the indicated item or step. In particular, in the claims a referenceto an item generally means at least one such item is present and areference to a step means at least one instance of the step isperformed.

Headings are for convenience only; information on a given topic may befound outside the section whose heading indicates that topic.

All claims as filed are part of the specification.

While exemplary embodiments have been shown in the drawings anddescribed above, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in theart that numerous modifications can be made without departing from theprinciples and concepts set forth in the claims. Although the subjectmatter is described in language specific to structural features and/ormethodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matterdefined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to thespecific features or acts described above the claims. It is notnecessary for every means or aspect identified in a given definition orexample to be present or to be utilized in every embodiment. Rather, thespecific features and acts described are disclosed as examples forconsideration when implementing the claims.

All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency ofthe claims are to be embraced within their scope to the full extentpermitted by law.

1. A method of producing a tailored intergenerational historic snapshotmessage, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining an indication ofa first person's age, the first person also referred to herein as theolder person; receiving an indication of a second person's age, thesecond person being a younger person than the older person; identifyinga historic time period in which the older person was the same age as theyounger person's received age; selecting at least one circumstancehaving an occurrence date in the historic time period; and automaticallygenerating a tailored intergenerational historic snapshot messagedisclosing that the selected circumstance occurred when the older personwas approximately the younger person's age.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein receiving an indication of a second person's age receives thesecond person's current age in years.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe historic time period satisfies at least one of the followingconditions: the historic time period is not greater than two months; thehistoric time period is not greater than six months; the historic timeperiod is not greater than one year; the historic time period is notgreater than two years; the historic time period is not greater thanfive years; the historic time period is not greater than ten years. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein selecting at least one circumstancecomprises at least one of the following: querying a database, contactinga web search engine.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the selectingstep selects a circumstance based at least in part on a user-specifiedtopical preference.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdetermining a geographic location, and wherein the selecting stepselects a circumstance based at least in part on the geographiclocation.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting themessage to a user for at least one of: editing, approval.
 8. The methodof claim 1, further comprising electronically transmitting the messageto at least the younger person.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein themessage also discloses a familial relationship between the older personand the younger person.
 10. A method of requesting a tailoredintergenerational historic snapshot message, the method comprising thesteps of: giving a system an indication of a first person's current age,the first person also referred to herein as the older person; providingthe system with an indication of a second person's current age, thesecond person being a younger person than the older person; and gettingfrom the system a tailored intergenerational historic snapshot messagewhich discloses that a particular circumstance occurred when the olderperson was approximately the younger person's current age.
 11. Themethod of claim 10, further comprising submitting to the system personalhistory information of the older person for potential inclusion in theautomatically generated message.
 12. The method of claim 10, furthercomprising specifying to the system how close in time the particularcircumstance should be to a date when the older person was the youngerperson's current age.
 13. The method of claim 10, further comprisingspecifying to the system a topic to be used in selecting the particularcircumstance.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the topic specified tothe system overlaps at least one of the following topic categories:sports, technology, music, films, fine arts, literature, famous people,war, crime, exploration, fashion, automobiles, transportation,engineering, politics, economics, books, law, science, business,religion, philosophy, travel, food, adventure, hobbies.
 15. The methodof claim 10, further comprising specifying to the system a geographiclocation to be used in selecting the particular circumstance.
 16. Themethod of claim 10, further comprising the step of choosing theparticular circumstance from a list of circumstances displayed by thesystem.
 17. The method of claim 10, further comprising instructing thesystem to send the message on a date that is the birthday of at leastone of the following: the younger person, the older person, a personinstructing the system.
 18. The method of claim 10, further comprisingreviewing the message and then approving the message, in response to aninquiry from the system.
 19. The method of claim 10, further comprisingediting the message before it is sent to the younger person.
 20. Themethod of claim 10, further comprising addressing the message tomultiple people in a family group.